JiaYou!

April 1 (Friday) - Today was much like a usual Friday here. We had class, and then afterwards we picked up some food and chilled out before going to Taiji. We had class inside the school gym which essentially was a whole lot of badminton courts. We eventually moved into the weight room because of the badmitten players kicking us off. Later that night we all went out to Fantasy (club) again with the Australians and did some dancing etc.

April 2 (Saturday) - Laziest day yet in China for probably all of us. Every day here seems to be so stimulating and exhilarating that today was a good day for a break to recouperate.

April 3 (Sunday) - Today I played basketball in a game for the first time. It was me, Sean, Crystal, and Hutch (one of the Australians), against a couple other Chinese teams in a pick up game to stay on the court. I have no idea exactly how to play basketball, so I was pretty horrible though I got a couple blocks in. The rest of the peeps on my team were pretty good though (each one of them have had some sort of experience playing basketball). Anyways we played an group of "men" (as Crystal liked to call them) and they didn't exactly play clean... especially the guy that I was covering. He wore a full adidas suit and was a dense guy. He plowed Crystal when she was defending another dude. And he and I collided a couple of times beating up my right leg pretty bad. Nothing serious, but I'll be feeling it when we hit up the Silk Road on Sunday.
On the bright side, in Chinese Language class, we were learning terms for accidents, and collisions so it made a good anecdote in future classes.
Sean and I tried working out later that night on the various equipments around campus, but they all were kind of disappointing, so we ended up climbing trees instead and then going back to do some jump roping.
A couple of the Canadians from downstairs heard us and came on up to deliver the news that they will be leaving tomorrow. This just reaffirms that time seems to fly by so fast.

April 4 (Monday) - We (international students) were the only ones around having class because Chinese people have a holiday between Sunday and Tuesday to more or less celebrate and pay respects to the deceased. Of course the Chinese students have to make up some of the vaction by going to school on Saturday (and those in a couple of our roommate's classes, who didn't go to class had to write a 2,000 word apology paper for skipping class).
Chinese Language Table was at a fancer version of the normal restaurant that we go to (same company). I'm sure you've gotten the message already that the food was good.
Since Chinese students didn't have school today, we didn't teach today and we got to chill out for the rest of the day.

April 5 (Tuesday) - Had class all day. We got some Bian Bian Mien for dinner for the first time in a long time. This is one of Xi'an's specialty noodle dishes which is delicious! Afterwards, Margaux and I navigated a few of the narrow ally-ways full of people selling various foods, shoes, clothes, DVDs etc. It's just fun walking through and seeing the culture and the hustle and bustle as each vendor is looking for their next customer.

April 6 (Wednesday) - After my one on one session, I played a little bit of ping pong with Zhang Laoshi. We left before long though because the ping pong table in the internation building is highly sought after and a couple of others wanted to play.
At 1:30, Gao and I headed to a haircut place. It was probably the best haircutting experience yet for me! They start by washing and shampooing your hair. They then cut it (with mostly scissors) and then they rinse it again. After that, they do some final touches and then style it a bit. I didn't take a picture, but I looked like a classic Chinese guy which had some mixed responses. (Chinese people liked it, but some thought that it didn't suit me well) The haircut was 50 kuai, but Student IDs cut that in half = 25 kuai, and with Gao's VIP card, it dropped down to 20 kuai. It was definitely worth it!
I then ended up buying a new smaller backpack for the Silk Road trip as well as a new pair of shoes. (My other pair of shoes are really worn and the shoe laces had already ripped off the left shoe). I got my shoes from the Converse discount store for 190 kuai = maybe 30 USD.
We then had calligraphy class which flew by quickly as always.
For dinner, we went to the all-you-can-eat hot pot again. It was delicious - as always, and I ate too much - as always.

April 7 (Thursday) - Class all day agian. Joe and I went to go get some bo tai mien (spinache noodles, with beef, spices and an egg)(which I go to all too frequently). Unfortunately, it was closed, so we got some street food which is always really tasty, but at the same time extremely greasy. We joked that we were "adding oil" which is the direct translation from "Jia You!" (which is an encouraging cheer that Chinese people belt out to root on their friends)
We studied the rest of the night for our midterm tomorrow.

April 8 (Friday) - Midterm! The test went surprisingly well. I think it was best test yet! Afterwards we all took a siesta. Later that night we watched "Life is Beautiful" suggested by Joe and it did not disappoint. I would highly recommend watching it.

April 9 (Saturday) - Woke up early to go to Sculpting in Time to get a nice hearty breakfast to start the day. Margaux, Xie Miao, and I then caught the bus to Jiaotong University to meet up Jocelyn and a couple of her friends to see the Cherry Blossoms. The day was warm and beatiful expertly complementing the blooming flowers.
After looking at the flowers, we headed to muslim street walked around and picked at different foods. These included (plum drink, seasame noodles, fried rice, roasted beef and tofu, etc.)
At 3:30ish we headed to KTV to meet up with Xie Miao, Margaux, and Dodo. It was fun, but the foreign the songs seemed to be played by some orchestra from the alps and the video was always focused on some chick that stood there and looked blankly into the distance. I really need to learn some Chinese music...
Jocelyn, her friends and I then headed to get bo tai mien. So good.
Spent the rest of the night packing and now in just a few hours, we'll be hopping on the Silk Road!
Prepare for a massive update 2 weeks from now!